Food Waste
According to the USDA, over one-third of all food in the US goes uneaten through loss or waste. Food waste can be attributed to both the food supply industry and consumers. The FDA stated that waste occurs at every stage of food production – farming, packing, processing, distributing, and retailing. It can be the result of economic or environmental conditions, management oversights, or labor shortages.
Grocery stores and restaurants can be hesitant to donate surplus food for fear of liability and lack of capacity to handle logistics such as storage, pickups, and distribution.
Most consumers are not sufficiently informed to make sustainable food choices, with many over-buying and tossing food prematurely. Confusion around date labels on food leads to 20 % of consumer waste.
Sources to Courses is uniquely positioned to address these challenges with its innovative platform that records attribute metadata at each stage of food production. Data-driven, immutable records are accessible to farmers, distributors, retailers, and consumers, creating a more straightforward, unified food system. S2C fills in the gaps of management oversight, digitizes farming processes, and gives consumers the insight they need to make informed decisions.
Responsible Sourcing
Responsible sourcing is a focus on obtaining products from organizations that produce food in ethical and sustainable ways, with little to no negative impact on their workers, their community, and the greater society. This involves the issue of human rights – the ethical treatment of employees, comfortable working conditions, and the assurance that there is no forced labor being practiced.
Many companies make noteworthy strides in vetting their suppliers, but it’s difficult for them to have any level of certainty regarding the conditions of the farm, manufacturing site, or warehouse where the food came from. This puts retailers in a vulnerable position where partnering with the wrong supplier could tarnish the reputation of their brand or even leave them liable. Even when this is not the case, it’s still a challenge for retailers to prove that they are, in fact, sourcing responsibly.
Sources to Courses is a supply chain management platform that gives retailers clear insights into the operations and practices of the organizations they are sourcing from. Our Validated Data Tokens™ register WHERE, WHEN, WHO, and WHAT data for events such as planting, harvesting, and packing, providing transparent verification and unprecedented accountability. This allows retailers to make responsible decisions and demonstrate ethical sourcing with hardened data for auditors.
Sustainability
Traceability and Transparent Reporting
Transparency is key in creating change. Corporations must be able to demonstrate their efforts toward sustainable and ethical practices. Many businesses will provide annual reports of their progress in reaching specific targets, but there is yet to be a standardized method for the ongoing recording of progress to provide sufficient proof of growth in these areas.
The S2C platform captures real-time data of business operations, creating functional digital equivalents of physical processes. Our Validated Data Tokens™ house detailed information on the WHERE, WHEN, WHO, and WHAT of supply chains to provide clear insights that can be verified not only by auditors, but all stakeholders — including customers.
A sustainable food system is one that delivers lasting food security and nutrition. They are essential for reducing waste, maintaining safety, and ensuring that quality food is accessible to the population at large. Sources to Courses tackles the challenges of sustainability with transparent data records that provide reliable traceability.
Creating sustainability in food production and consumption is essential for reducing waste, maintaining safety, and ensuring that quality food is accessible to the population at large. In order for both food sources and consumers to create and maintain sustainable practices, there needs to be a system in place to regulate processes, track operations, and transparently share data.